KELLY MATHESON

Kelly has been working with Our Children’s Trust since our inception, joining the staff in 2022 to deepen the impact of our global program. A key goal of the global work is to ensure that courts around the world use the best available science in making decisions about the future of humanity. In addition to filing numerous briefs with regional and international courts to advance the dual analysis of law and science, Kelly is curating a 10-part series with Open Global Rights, “Overturning 1.5°C: Calling for the Science Turn in Rights-Based Climate Litigation” in collaboration with climate experts, litigators, scholars, and leaders around the globe. Recently, she co-authored an editorial, Verein KlimaSeniorinnen, Carême, and Duarte Agostinho: How Science Can Save Humanity in Strasbourg Observers and “Securing the Legal Right to a Healthy Atmosphere and Stable Climate for the Benefit of All Present and Future Generations” to be published in Legal Actions for Future Generations.  

Previously, Kelly worked at WITNESS, an international human rights organization, where she developed a strategic communication plan which included co-directing, producing, and distributing a series of ten short films written by Our Children Trust’s youth plaintiffs titled, Stories of TRUST: Calling for Climate Recovery. Following this campaign Kelly served on Our Children’s Trust Board from 2015-2021. Some of her other publications include “The Case for Climate Visuals in the Courtroom” in Litigating the Climate Emergency: How Human Rights, Courts, and Legal Mobilization Can Bolster Climate Action in Cambridge Press (2023) and ”The Role of Mobile Technology in Documenting International Crimes: The Affaire Castro et Kizito in the Democratic Republic of Congo” in the Journal of International Criminal Justice (2021). She also authored two ground-breaking practical guides: the Video as Evidence Field Guide and Video as Evidence: Environmental Defense Guide for WITNESS (2015 and 2023).  

Kelly serves on the Advisory Board at the Berkeley Human Rights Center. She received her JD from the University of Oregon School of Law, MFA in Science and Natural History Filmmaking from Montana State University, and BS from Drake University.